Healthy Start Program Receives Generous Donation
Blowing Rock Rotary Keeps Program Afloat For Another Year

By Sherrie Norris

It’s always a gamble when non-profit agencies start new programs, but thanks to the generosity of local contributors, it’s quite likely that the programs that pay off will remain viable for a long time to come.

Such is the case with the Healthy Start Program, just one of many services coordinated by the Hunger and Health Coalition that keeps young children from going hungry.

Compton Fortuna, the Coalition’s director, was ecstatic as she shared with The Mountain Times that a generous gift of $4500 was recently presented to her agency by the Blowing Rock Rotary Club, which she says will insure the continued operation of Healthy Start for another year. “The funds will be used to purchase food that will be distributed directly to the children,” she adds.

The mission of the Healthy Start program, now in its third year, is to provide nutritious, kid- friendly foods on a weekly basis to Head Start participants in Watauga and Avery counties. The program was developed in response to growing reports that children did not have enough to eat over the weekends, Fortuna states. “A former Board member, Jim Prather, was involved with Head Start and thought we might be able to assist with food supplements from our Food Pantry. We began packing ‘weekend bags’ of nutritious, foods we thought the kids might like and delivering them to the Head Start centers in Watauga and Avery. Children would take the bags home over the weekend for healthy snacks and extra food.”

Currently serving 75 children at four Head Start centers in the two counties, last year alone over 20,000 pounds of food were distributed through the Healthy Start program to about 80 children. The current average is 296 bags prepared each month and the Head Start staff sends home one bag per child each week

“This provided preschool-age children with healthy foods over the weekends, preventing them from being hungry while away from school,” Fortuna explained. “We make up seven-pound bags of kid-friendly food each month for children to take home on the weekends to make sure that they have food to eat. Nothing makes me sadder than thinking of a child going to a cupboard and finding nothing there to eat, especially in an area like ours when no one should have to go hungry.” Fortuna’s statistics prove that 30% of those her agency feeds on a regular basis are children and youth under the age of 18. “This program started so informally but has turned into something great that in itself is so significant.”

“Foods for the Healthy Start program are purchased from the Second Harvest Food Bank when available. When appropriate foods are not available through the Food Bank, the program utilizes donations and makes limited purchases when necessary.”

The average cost to fund the program is $450 per month, or $4,500 over the 10 month school year. The cost to provide nutritious foods to one child for one weekend is only $1.50.

Thanks to Blowing Rock Rotary, another year of feeding the children has just been made possible.